Mountain Cree-Smallboy Camp Story Published

Thank you to the families at the Mountain Cree-Smallboy Camp for welcoming me and sharing their community with me.

This camp was created so that the community could live according to their natural laws, with the elements, and have a place away from the reserve system to maintain their language and spiritual practices. They collect water from the glacier-fed Cardinal River, hunt wild game and harvest medicines, chop wood to heat their homes, and choose to live in a way that's connected to the water and the land.

A coal mine expansion near the camp could extend the risks of selenium and nitrate contamination to the Cardinal River. The camp does not engage in political fights, nor do they normally appear in the press. They are not opposed to all mining, but they asked that the company keep their mining to an area that won't affect their drinking water.

I was very lucky to have met Mel Nadue before he passed away this past month—he was extremely kind to me.

You can read more about the camp, the mine expansion, and Teck’s pollution record on the Narwhal here.